The recovery for air travel at Swedavia’s airports continued in August and for the second month in a row, the number of passengers reached the highest level since the start of the pandemic. However, there is now a certain slowdown in the recovery.
Almost 1.5 million passengers used Swedavia’s ten airports in August, which is the highest number of passengers in a single month since the beginning of the pandemic. Of the almost 1.5 million travelers in August, 1,078,000 were foreign travelers and 420,000 domestic travelers, corresponding to a decrease of 61 percent in international travel and 57 percent in domestic travel compared with the same month in 2019, before the pandemic. In total, air travel in August increased by 130 percent compared to August in 2020, but at the same time passenger numbers are 60 percent lower than in the same period before the pandemic.

“We are pleased to note that the recovery of aviation has continued during the summer as communities open up and an increased degree of vaccination. The development is also driven by a seasonal increase in holiday travel and trips to relatives and friends. When we sum up the summer travel, however, we are far from a normal situation. During the month of August, 6 out of 10 passengers at our airports were still missing compared to before the pandemic, ”says Jonas Abrahamsson, Swedavia’s President and CEO.
Stockholm Arlanda Airport, reduced air travel by 61 percent to 946,000 passengers in August compared with August 2019. Gothenburg Landvetter Airport had a total of almost 265,000 passengers in August, a decrease of 58 percent compared to August 2019. Bromma Stockholm Airport had just over 64 000 passengers in August, corresponding to a decrease of 64 percent with the passenger levels before the pandemic in August 2019. At Swedavia’s seven regional airports, the reduction in the number of passengers was between 36 percent and 84 percent. All regional airports also had a clearly improved passenger development in August compared with previous months and the same month in 2020.
Although Swedavia saw a clear recovery in early August, the airport operator notes that the recovery has slowed down when the summer from the end of August and that an uncertain autumn for aviation begins.
“At the end of August, there was a certain slowdown in the recovery rate for air travel. Although the bright spots are many, the uncertainty ahead is still great. It partly depends on how the pandemic develops, but there is also uncertainty about, for example, the extent to which business travel takes off during the autumn, ”says Jonas Abrahamsson.
Augusti 2021 | Passanger | Jmf 2020 | Jmf 2019 |
Stockholm Arlanda | 945 879 | 126% | -61% |
Gothenburg Landvetter | 264 877 | 155% | -58% |
Malmö | 82 104 | 108% | -55% |
Stockholm Bromma | 64 480 | 419% | -64% |
Luleå | 50 417 | 52% | -48% |
Umeå | 30 844 | 56% | -58% |
Visby | 29 645 | 158% | -36% |
Kiruna | 16 754 | 144% | -37% |
Åre Östersund | 10 045 | 137% | -69% |
Ronneby | 2 387 | 117% | -84% |
Totalt | 1 497 432 | 130% | -60% |
(Photo: Kalle Sanner)
Credit: Simon Ericson & Flyg24Nyheter
Original article (SE): https://flyg24nyheter.com/2021/09/07/swedavia-stark-aterhamtning-i-augusti-men-avmattning-marks-nu/